Merchandise vending machine



pt- 1938. H. E WILLIAMS 2,129,897

MERCHANDISE VENDING MACHINE Filed May 11, 1956 INVENTOR H S A'ITORNEY'.

Patented Sept. 13, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFHQE MERCHANDISE VENDING MACHINE Application May 11, 1936, Serial No. 78,968

Claims.

This invention relates to certain novel improvements in coin-controlled vending machines, and has for its principal object the provision of an improved construction of this character which 5 will be highly eflicient in use and economical in manufacture.

Among the salient objects of this invention is the provision of a merchandise vending mechanism which may be associated with or assembled as a part of an amusement game apparatus, such as, for example, the conventional and well known bagatelle pin games, in which there is employed a slidable panel for supporting the balls upon the playboard of the apparatus.

With the merchandise vending mechanism associated with or assembled as a part of a conventional and well known bagatelle pin game, it is the object to provide mechanism for controlling both the operation of the bagatelle pin game and the merchandise vending mechanism, whereby a piece of merchandise is vended each time the coin slide of the bagatelle pin game is manipulated to permit operation and play of the bagatelle game.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawing showing the preferred form of construction, and in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary vertical sectional detail view of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional detail view of the invention taken substantially on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional detail View of the invention taken substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional detail view of the invention taken substantially on line 4-4 of Fig. l.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, in which the preferred form of construction of my invention is illustrated, Ill indicates a play board of a bagatelle game upon which balls are adapted to be projected in the usual manner for gravitation from the upper end thereof.

Beneath this playboard l I) is a slidable panel I I of the usual construction, and serving to support balls in ball exit openings (not shown) formed in the playboard I0. Movement of this panel I I is accomplished through the medium of a coin slide structure indicated at I2. A coin slide device suitable for this purpose may be one of the type shown in U. S. Patent 2,049,597 to W. A. Tratsch. This coin slide structure includes a slide member or bar I3, which in the present instance is provided with a depending finger I4 adapted to engage a finger I5 carried by a feed- 5 operating bar I6 slidably mounted through the medium of a slot and pin connection ll to an adjacent wall I8 of the cabinet I9 of the apparatus. This bar I 5, in turn, is connected in any suitable manner to the panel II, whereby when the 10 bar I6 is moved by action of the coin slide I2 in a direction against the action of a spring 29, the panel I I will be moved in a position to permit the balls (not shown) to pass through the ball exit openings (not shown) formed in the playboard I Ii. 15

This bar I6 is provided with a finger 2|, and this finger 2I is adapted to operably engage an arm 22 pivotally connected to the side wall I8, as at 23'. The lower end portion of this arm 22 is provided with a seat 23 normally obstructing a discharge opening 24 of a trough 25 through which merchandise 26 is adapted to pass. There is likewise provided on the lower end portion of the arm 22 in spaced relation with respect to the seat 23 an auxiliary seat portion 41 which is so constructed as to obstruct passage of merchandise 26 from the trough 25 into the opening 24 when the seat 23 is disposed in unobstructing position (dotted lines, Fig. 1)

The discharge opening 2 5 communicates with the upper end portion 2'! of a chute 28 through which the discharged merchandise rolls to a position to be manually removed from the chute 28.

Cooperating with the seat 23 to hold the merchandise from movement into the chute 2'! is a resilient finger 29. Movably mounted beneath the seat 23 and adjacent the discharge opening 24 is an ejector 38 comprising a plunger rod 3| movably mounted for slidable movement in the front wall E9 of the cabinet I9 and normally held in its outer position by means of a spring 32.

Mounted upon the wall I9, as at 33, is a bracket 34 on which is mounted an electro-magnetic coil 35 having the usual magnetic core 36 and springcontrolled vibratory arm 31. The outer end portion of this arm 31 provides a latch head 38 which normally has latched engagement with the arm 22 to restrain operation of the arm 22 by the action of a spring 39.

The coin chute structure includes a shelf 40, and on this shelf 40 is pivotally mounted, as at 4|, an actuating arm 42. On this arm is a pin 43 which projects into the coin chute structure I2 in the path of the token, whereby a token of proper size and denomination movable with the slide of the coin chute structure will force this pin 43 outwardly, and consequently move the actuating arm 42 in a direction to close the contacts 46 of a structure 44 controlling the circuit to the electro-magneti'c coil 35.

Briefly, the operation is as follows: The slide of the coin slide structure I2 is moved inwardly to slide the bar Hi to move the panel I l in a position to permit discharge of spent balls'from the playboard l0. During this movement of the bar IS, the arm 22 is pivoted by the action of the spring 39 to dispose the seat 23 from obstructing position with respect to the discharge opening 24.

This movement of the arm 22 by the action of the spring 39 is permitted by the release of the latch head 38 therefrom by action of the magnetic coil 35, the circuit of which has been closed by the action of the pin 43 engaging the token carried by the slide of the coin slide structure I2. This pivotal movement of the arm 22 permits one unit of merchandise 26' to pass through the discharge opening 24 to be ejected by the ejector 30 into the chute 28 into position to be removed therefrom, the remaining merchandise 26 being obstructed by the seat 41.

A token not of the proper denomination or size will not actuate the pin 43, and consequently the latch head 38 will not be moved from latched position with respect to the arm 22, thereby preventing the vending of the merchandise.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. Merchandise dispensing mechanism for use with vending machines of the type including a coin controlled instrumentality, and a coin-freed control therefor, said mechanism comprising a trough having an open bottom portion and adapted for gravity feed of articles of merchandise toward the open bottom part thereof, a yieldable stop member positioned adjacent the open bottom part of the trough, a manually reciprocable ejecting mechanism positioned below said open bottom of the trough and including a reciprocable slide member movable in a direction toward and away from said yieldable stop member and having spring means normally positioning an end of the same away from said stop to permit gravitating movement of an article between said end and said stop, a pivoted feed arm' having an angled end portion normally positioned below the open bottom of said trough to prevent movement of articles of merchandise therethrough and toward said ejecting mechanism, yieldable means normally urging said pivoted arm in a direction to move said angled end portion away from the said open bottom of said trough to release merchandise therefrom for positioning between the extremity of said reciprocable ejecting member and said yieldable stop member for ejecting movement past the latter by manual operation of the former, together with automatic latch means releasable by operation of said coinfreed control to release said pivoted feed arm for feeding movement under the urgence of said yieldable means said feed arm having a second angled portion spaced and offset from said first mentioned angled portion and movable into position to block movement of articles toward said first mentioned portion when the latter is moved out of movement-preventing position as aforesaid, and means actuated by the aforesaid instrumentality for moving said pivoted feed arm into latched position.

2. Dispensing mechanism for use with coinfreed devices and comprising a gravity merchandise feed having an exit opening, yieldable stop means positioned adjacent said opening, a reciprocable ejector positioned below said opening and having an end portion adapted for engagement with an article of merchandise to move the latter past said yieldable stop member to release such merchandise, merchandise feed means including a pivoted feed arm having a pair of spaced offset end portions alternately positionable by pivotation of said arm to block the movement of merchandise in the direction of said exit opening, one of the said ofiset end portions being adapted to close said exit opening when the said arm is in one position and to be moved away from said exit opening and permit merchandise to pass therethrough when said arm is in a second position, means normally urging said arm with the last mentioned said ofiset portion thereof in position to open said exit opening, together with releasable latch means for holding said arm in po sition with the said last mentioned offset portion thereof closing said exit opening, the said latch means being operable'automatically by said coin control device to release said arm for movement by said urging means to move the offset end portion thereof away from said exit opening and permit an article of merchandise to move by gravity toward said ejecting means for manual movement by the latter past said yieldable stop member.

3. Dispensing mechanism including a reciprocable coin-freed control, a merchandise supporting trough having a discharge opening, an oscillatable feed arm provided with spaced oiiset members adapted for movement relative to said trough to obstruct passage of merchandise articles through said opening and movable to a position to permit discharge of merchandise articles one at a time through said opening, means including a yieldable stop member positioned adjacent and below said discharge opening, and means including a reciprocable ejector below said discharge opening and having an end portion positioned oppositely to said stop member and movable toward and away from the latter by reciprocation of said ejecting member, the said stop member being efiective to arrest movement of merchandise passing through said discharge opening and the said end portion of the ejector being movable with the latter toward said stop member to urge an article of merchandise past the same, spring means normally urging said feed arm into article discharging position, automatic latch means normally latching said feed arm out of article discharging position, said latch means being released by operation of said coin-freed control when the same is moved in one direction, said control being operable when moved in an opposite direction to restore said feed arm to latched position as aforesaid.

4-. Dispensing mechanism including a discharge chute having an entrance and an exit opening, guide means for directing the gravitating movement of articles toward said entrance opening, resilient stopping means positioned to block the movement of articles into said entrance opening, ejecting means including a manually operable member movable toward and away from said stop means to push an article past the latter, article feed means including a pivoted feed arm cooperable with said guide means to feed articles one at a time for each complete oscillation of said feed arm for gravitating movement into position between said ejecting means and said stopping means, spring means normally urging said feed arm into article feeding position to feed an article toward said ejecting and stopping means as aforesaid, automatic latch means holding said feed arm in non-feeding position, a feed arm actuating bar arranged for reciprocable movement into and out of engagement with said feed arm to move the latter against the action of said spring into latched position, and mechanism including a reciprocably movable control operable when moved in one direction to move said feed arm actuating bar out of operative engagement with said feed arm and further operable to effect the release of said latch means, together with spring means normally urging said feed arm operating bar into operative engagement with said feed arm in a direction to move the latter into latched position.

5. Mechanism for. dispensing articles of merchandise comprising a conduit through which the articles are adapted to gravitate in succession and provided with a discharge opening, a discharge chute communicating with said opening, an oscillatable feed arm provided with a pair of cooperating offset members movable by said arm for effecting the discharge of said articles one at a time through said opening, means comprising a. yieldable member for arresting each of said articles after passage of the same through said opening and restraining movement of the same into said chute, token or coin releasable means for effecting the operation of said feed arm, and a manually operable reciprocable member for shifting an article against the action of said yieldable member into said chute.

- HARRY E. WILLIAMS. 

